B    3    S3fl    Efll 


UBRAPV 

JAN 161970 


ADDRESS  OF 

BOOKER  T.  WASHINQTON, 

// 

DELIVERED  AT  THE 

ALUMNI  LMNNER 

OF 

HARVARD  UNIVERSITY, 

OAMBRIDGK,  MASS. 

JUNE  24,   1896- 


Tviskegee    Institute  Steam  Print, 
Tuskegee,    Ala.,  lyoi. 


LOAN  STACK 


MA  !/-. 

First  in  the  history  of  America,  a  leading  American  I'niver- 
sity  confers  an  honorary  degree  upon  a  colored  man.  Harvard 
lias  been  always  to  the  front  in  ideas  of  liberty,  freedom  and 
equality.  When  other  colleges  of  the  North  were  accepting  the 
Negro  as  a  tolerance,  Harvard  had  been  awarding  him  honors,  as 
in  the  case  of  Clement  G .  Morgan  of  recent  date.  Her  present 
action ,  therefore,  in  placing  an  honorary  crown  upon  the  worthy 
head  of  Mr.  Washington,  is  but  a  step  further  in  her  magnanim 
ity  in  recognixing  merit  under  whatever  color  of  skin. 

The  mere  announcement  of  this  event  is  a  great  testimony  to 
the  standing  of  Mr.  Washington,  but  to  any  black  person  who,  -as 
I  did.  saw  and  heard  the  enthusiasm  and  applause  with  which  the 
audience  cheered  the  announcement  by  President  Eliot  .the  degree 
itself  was  insignificant.  The  Boston  Lancers  had  conducted  Gov. 
Wolcott  to  Cambridge,  and  f>00  Harvard  graduates  had  double 
filed  the  march  to  Sanders' Theatre.  It  was  a  great  day.  Latin 
orations,  disquisitions,  dissertations  and  essays  in  English  were 
delivered  by  selected  graduates,  clad  in  stately  and  classic  cap 
and  gown.  Bishops,  generals,  commodores,  statesmen,  authors, 
poets,  explorers,  millionaires  and  noted  men  of  every  calling,  sat 
as  earnest  listeners.  .President  Eliot  had  issued  f)00  diplomas  by 
handing  them  to  the  representatives  of  the  graduates  in  bundles 
of  twenty  to  twenty-five.  Then  came  the  awarding  of  honorary 
degrees.  Thirteen  were  issued.  Bishop  Vincent  and  General 
Nelson  A.  Miles,  Commander  of  the  I*.  S.  Army,  being  among 
the  re<-ipients.  When  the  name  of  Hooker  T.  Washington  was 
called,  and  he  arose  to  acknowledge  and  accept,  there  was  such 
an  outburst  of  applause  as  greeted  no  other  name  except  that  of 
the  popular  soldier  patriot.  General  Miles.  The  applause  was 
not  studied  and  stitT,  sympathetic  and  condoling:  it  was  enthu 
siasm  and  admiration.  Kvery  part  <>f  the  audience  from  pit  to 
gallery  joined  in.  and  a  glow  covered  the  cheeks  of  those  around 
me,  proving  that  sincere  appreciation  of  the  rising  struggle  of  an 
ex-slave  and  the  work  he  has  accomplished  for  his  race. 

348 


But  the  event  of  the  day  was  the  alumni  dinner,  when 
speeches  formed  the  most  enjoyable  bill  of  fare.  Two  hundred 
Harvard  alumni  and  their  invited  quests  partook  of  their  annual 
dinner.  •  Four  or  five  speeches  were  made,  amcng  them  one  from 
Mr.  Washington. 

At;  the  close  of  the  speaking,  notwithstanding  Senator  Henry 
Cabot  Lodge,  Dr.  Minot  J.  Savage  and  others  had  spoken.  Presi 
dent  Eliot  warmly  grasped  Mr.  Washington  by  the  hand  and  told 
him  that  his  was  the  best  speech  of  the  day. 

Anent  the  conferring  of  the  degree  and  the  toasts,  the  papers 
have  been  unusual  in  favorable  comment.  Says  the  Boston  Post  : 

"In  conferring  the  honorary  degree  of  "Master  of  Arts  upon 
the  Principal  of  Tuskegee  Institute,  Harvard  University  has  hon 
ored  itself  as  well  as  the  object  of  this  distinction.  The  work 
which  Prof.  Booker  T.  Washington  has  accomplished  for  the  edu 
cation ,  good  citi/enship  and  popular  enlightment  in  his  chosen 
field  of  labor  in  the  South,  entitles  him  to  rank  with  our  national 
benefactors.  The  University  which  can  claim  him  on  its  list  of 
sons,  whether  in  regular  course  or  honoris  causa  may  be  proud. 

"It  has  been  mentioned  that  Mr.  Washington  is  the  first  of 
his  race  to  receive  an  honorary  degree  from  a  New  England  Uni 
versity.  This,  in  itself,  is  a  distinction.  But  the  degree  was  not 
conferred  because  Mr.  Washington  is  a  colored  man,  or  because 
he  was  born  in  slavery,  but  because  he  has  shown,  by  his  work 
for  the  elevation  of  the  people  of  the  Black  Belt  of*  the  South,  a 
genius  and  a  broad  humanity  which  count  for  greatness  in  any 
man,  whether  his  skin  be  white  or  black." 

The  Boston  Globe  adds:  "It  is  Harvard  which,  first  among 
New  England  colleges,  confers  an  honorary  degree  upon  a  black 
man.  No  one  who  has  followed  the  history  of  Tuskegee  and  its 
work',  can  fail  to  admire  the  courage,  persistence  and  splendid 
common  sense  of  Booker  T.  Washington.  Well  may  Harvard 
honor  the  ex-slave,  the  value  of  whose  services,  alike  to  his  race 
and  country,  only  the  future  can  estimate." 

The  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Times  kindly  remarks: 
"All  the  speeches  were  enthusiastically  received,  but  the  colored 


man  carried  off  the  oratorical  honors,  and  the  applause  which 
broke  out  when  he  had  finished,  was  vociferous  and  long-con 
tinued." 

Most  of  the  papers  have  printed  his  cut,  and  congratulations 
have  come  from  every  source. 

The  grandest  feature  of  the  whole  thing,  is  that  the  fame  and 
honor  that  are  coming  thus  to  Mr.  Washington,  do  not  spoil  him. 
Twelve  months  in  the  year,  night  and  day,  he  works  for  Tuskegee 
—  his  heart  and  Jove.  No  vacation,  no  rest;  his  life  is  one  un 
ceasing  struggle  for  his  school .  This  is  the  secret  of  his  power. 
Here  is  the  lesson  to  be  learned. — Thos.  ,7.  Galloway,  in  The 
Washington  Colored  American. 
Boston,  June  24th,  1890. 


MK.   WASHINGTON'S   ADDRESS. 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  (IKNTLKMKN  : — 

It  would  in  some  measure  relieve  my  embarrassment  if  I 
could,  even  in  a  slight  degree,  feel  myself  worthy  of  the  great 
honor  which  you  do  me  to-day.  Why  you  have  called  me  from 
the  Black  Kelt  of  the  South,  from  among  my  humble  people,  to 
share  in  the  honors  of  this  occasion,  is  not  for  me  to  explain;  and 
yet  it  may  not  be  inappropriate  for  me  to  suggest  that  it  seems 
to  me  that  one  of  the  most  vital  questions  that  touches  our  Ameri 
can  life,  is  how  to  bring  the  strong,  wealthy  and  lenrned  into 
helpful  touch  with  the  poorest  ,  most  ignorant,  and  humble  and  at 
the  same  time,  make  the  one  appreciate  the  vitali/ing,  strength 
ening  influence  of  the  other.  How  shall  we  make  the  mansions 
on  yon  Beacon  Street  feel  and  see  the  need  of  the  spirits  in  the 
lowliest  cabin  in  Alabama  cotton  fields  or  Louisiana  sugar  bot 
toms?  This  problem  Harvard  University  is  solving,  not  by  bring 
ing  itself  down,  but  by  bringing  the  masses  up. 

If  through  me,  an  humble  representative,  seven  millions  of 
my  people  in  the  South  might  be  permitted  to  send  a  message  to 
Harvard — Harvard  that  offered  up  on  death's  altar,  young  Shaw, 
and  Russell,  and  Lowell  and  scores  of  others,  that  we  might  have 
a  free  and  united  country,  that  message  would  be,  ltTell  them  that 


the  sacrifice  was  not  in  vain.  Tell  them  that  by  the  way  of  the 
shop,  the  field,  the  skilled  hand,  habits  of  thrift  and  economy,  by 
way  of  industrial  school  and  college,  we  are  coining.  We  are 
crawling  up,  working  up,  yea,  bursting  up.  Often  through  op 
pression,  unjust  discrimination  and  prejudice,  but  through  them 
all  we  arc  coining  up,  and  with  proper  habits,  intelligence  and 
property,  there  is  no  power  on  earth  that  can  permanently  stay 
our  progress/' ' 

It'  my  life  in  the  past  has  meant  anything  in  the  lifting  up  of 
my  people  and  t  he  bringing  about  of  better  relations  between 
your  race  and  mine.  I  assure  you  from  this  day  it  will  mean 
doubly  more.  In  the  economy  of  (iod,  there  is  but  one  standard 
by  which  an  individual  can  succeed — there  is  but  one  for  a  race. 
This  country  demands  that  every  race  measure  itself  by  the 
American  standard.  By  it  a  race  must  rise  or  fall,  succeed  or 
fail .  and  in  the  last  analysis  mere  sentiment  counts  for  little. 
During  the  next  half  century  and  more,  my  race  must  continue 
passing  through  the  severe  American  crucible.  We  arc1  to  be- 
tested  in  our  patience,  our  forbearance,  our  perseverance,  our 
power  to  endure  wrong,  to  withstand  temptations,  to  economize1, 
to  acquire  and  use  skill ;  our  ability  to  compete,  to  succeed  in 
commerce,  to  disregard  the  superficial  for  the  real,  the  appearance1 
for  the  substance,  to  be  great  and  yet  small,  learned  and  yet  sim 
ple,  high  and  yet  the  servant  of  all.  This,  this  is  the  passport  to 
all  that  is  best  in  the  life  of  our  Republic,  and  the  Negro  must 
possess  it,  or  be  debarred. 

\\ 'bile  we  arc1  thus  being  tested,  1  beg  of  you  to  remember 
that  wherever  our  life  touches  yours,  we  help  or  hinder.  Where- 
ever  your  life  touches  ours,  you  make  us  stronger  or  weaker.  Xo 
member  of  your  race  in  any  part  of  our  country  can  harm  the 
meanest  member  of  mine,  without  the  proudest  and  bluest  blood 
in  Massachusetts  being  degraded.  When  ^Mississippi  commits 
crime,  ^sew  England  commits  crime,  and  in  so  much,  lowers  the 
standard  of  your  civili/ation .  There  is  no  escape — man  drags 
man  down,  or  man  lifts  man  up. 

In  working  out  our  destiny,  while  the  main  burden  and  cen 
ter  of  activity  must  lie  with  us,  we  shall  need,  in  a.  large  measure 


in  the  years  that  are  to  come,  as  we  have  in  the  past  .  the  help, 
the  encouragement,  the  guidance  that  the  strong  can  give  tho 
weak.  Thus  helped,  we  of  both  races  in  the  South,  soon  shall 
throw  off  the  shackles  of  racial  and  sectional  prejudice  and  rise  as 
Harvard  University  lias  risen  and  as  we  all  should  rise,  above  the 
clouds  of  ignorance,  narrowness  and  selfishness,  into  that  atmos 
phere,  that  pure  sunshine,  where  it  will  be  our  highest  ambition 
to  serve  MAX,  our  brother,  regardless  of  race  or  previous  condition. 


